Another Episode 7 Thoughts

Notes on episode 7. Continuing my isolation from outside information and discussion. Spoilers through episode 7 present after the break.

Outside of the teacher’s apparent suicide, not too much happened this episode. They were obviously setting things up for future episodes (class trip, asking Reiko to connect with Matsunaga, possible shenanigan’s with Mei’s family). This will give me time to write some speculation that was inspired by a couple scenes from this episode: Akazawa and Mei separately telling Sakakibara he isn’t the dead person and Mei reaffirming her dislike of cell phones.

• How can Akazawa and Mei be so certain that Sakakibara isn’t the dead person? Akazawa attributes it to a vague memory, but it seems more like intuition at this point (because of possible memory alteration?). Mei is more cryptic, but that’s just Mei. From my perspective, it would just be bad taste to make Sakakibara the dead person so I want to believe he isn’t. There’s probably a better reason why he couldn’t be the dead person: assuming there was an April death he hadn’t even started class when the curse had already started.
• So…to follow up on the Akazawa memory alteration possibility, let’s combine this with the time discrepancy Sakakibara had with his father about the last time he was in Yomiyama. Let’s say he really was in Yomiyama at that time for whatever reason, he met Akazawa and they shook hands. Then the arrival of this year’s dead person causes the memory alteration to occur causing Akazawa to be unable to remember their meeting properly. The question now is “why would their memory of a handshake be altered?”. Well, what kinds of things do know of that are altered? I would guess anything that would make the chronology inconsistent—particularly if they were in a previous class 3—and anything pertaining to their death. I can make two likely scenarios representing these possibilities: 1) they met through the dead person while he/she was in class 3 or 2) they met through circumstances pertaining to his/her death. I have no reason to believe (1) at this point. It seems way too complex and I’m a fan of Occam’s razor. But (2), what if they met at a funeral which was for this year’s dead person? Then it would make sense that such a memory would be altered.
• So, keeping that line of thought, if it really was a funeral why would Sakakibara be in town for it? It could be coincidence, but we want to throw that lame excuse out at all costs. So he was in town for a funeral for someone he knew or was closely related to. This can be narrowed down to family or his mother’s friends since his father was not from Yomiyama and there is no mention of him ever making friends there. It’s most likely family since he really wouldn’t have a responsibility to attend the funeral of his mother’s friends (especially since the mother is dead) unless they were like family, in which case we probably would’ve been introduced to them already. So who have we been introduced to so far that fits this criteria? The grandmother, grandfather and Reiko. Reiko fits most of the criteria for the curse seeing as she is certainly related to class 3. The real question would be why isn’t she in class 3? This is the only thing where this line doesn’t make sense, but I can’t get away from this suspicion.
• It is also suspicious that the only year the deaths stop is Reiko’s year in class 3. And no dead person is accounted for.
• We can make another logical leap in saying Matsunaga couldn’t remember what he did to stop the curse since his memory was altered. This can also apply to Reiko herself if we assume she’s telling the truth that she can’t remember what happened. This also opens the door to saying the dead people are unwitting victims/accessories of the curse too. Why would memory alteration occur in this case? Not sure at this point.
• We can make another logical leap in saying memory alteration is fucking stupid. I hope they don’t stretch my suspended disbelief beyond it’s breaking point with this shit.
• We can speculate even more by combining the range of the curse with the phone interference as well as with the memory alteration. What got me thinking about this is Mei’s complaints about cell phones near the end of the episode; why even have this if cell phones don’t have some significance to the story? Even this episode’s phone call with Sakakibara’s father had faint interference at the good parts (although the call didn’t drop). We can speculate that the interference occurs when the father is about to reveal information which runs contrary to the memory alteration. This is the only way the curse can interact since the father is far out of range of Japan, let alone the curse, making him both immune to memory alteration or curse-related death. How this applies to the interference with Sakakibara’s calls with Mizuno and Teshigawara, I have no clue (but the easy logical leap is to associate Mizuno’s death with her revealing information to Sakakibara). Pretty loose connection, but thought it was worthwhile to mention
• It was stated before, but looking at 1983’s roster/death log that was presented this episode, we can say with certainty that the deaths start in April. So, who was this year’s April death? We can speculate that it was Fujioka Misaki, but why hasn’t this been addressed in the show yet?
• Bear with my speculations again. So this year started under the assumption that there would be no curse since they had the correct number of desks to start the year. Therefore no countermeasures were taken, or they were and the ignored person has not been revealed to us yet (could not be Mei, since her ignoring started in May, not April). However, Fujioka Misaki died, it was because of the curse and she counts as April’s death. If she was in class 3 we probably would’ve heard about it already and there probably would be an empty desk. Therefore we can assume she was a relation to someone in class. This is where Mei’s quote of her being “my other half” comes into play. They were actually related and they were closer that cousins since, according to Chibiki, cousins are safe. This points to something weird going on with Mei’s family and probably explains her weird relationship with her mother, her strange personality and the weird Mei-doll (not that is was for a miscarried child, but why would something be made in the first place) in the basement. We can also assume there is some sort of tie in with the curse.
• Next episode looks like some kind of beach episode. Yay. I could watch Akazawa in a bikini all day. Also, pastey Mei better wear some powerful sunblock; would be funny if she got an eyepatch tan line. If they are trying to appeal to the otaku audience with fanservice, can I get my hopes up for Mei Nendoroid?

Timeline - New/modified entries in italics.

• 1972, 26 years ago - Sakakibara’s mother is in class 3-3.
• 1972, May - Yomiyama Misaki’s house burns down. His entire family dies. The events that initiate the curse occur.
• 1973, 25 years ago - Deaths start; 6 students, 10 family members.
• 1983, 15 years ago - Aunt Reiko is in class 3-3.
• 1983, July - Sakakibara’s mother dies
• 1983, August 9 - This years’ final deaths occur during a field trip.
• 1987~1988 - Four year old Misaki Mei loses her eye (assuming students in 9th grade are about 14-15 years old).
• 1988, 10 years ago - Ignoring one student found to prevent the deaths.
• 1996 - Ignoring countermeasure works until the ignored student cracks and demands to be recognized. This triggers the deaths. Mikami is the homeroom teacher.
• Episode 1
• April 25 - Sakakibara admitted(?) to hospital.
• April 26 - Visited by Akazawa, Kazami, and Sakuragi. Same day(?) meets Misaki in the elevator delivering doll, supposedly for Fujioka Misaki. Fujioka Misaki dies(?).
• April 28 - Sakakibara was supposed to start school.
• May 1 - Misaki Mei starts to be ignored by the rest of the class.
• May 6 - Sakakibara starts school. Akazawa is absent. Same day(?) meets Misaki on the roof.
• Episode 2 - No dates given.
• Episode 3
• May 18 - Discussion about exams and high school and such. Same day(?) walks home with Sakuragi. Sakuragi and Teshigawara let a few things about the story slip out. Later tries to talk with Reiko about the story.
• May 22 - Mizuno tells Sakakibara that the dead girl was named Fujioka Misaki.
• May 25-26 - Exams.
• May 26 - Sakuragi dies. Her mother also dies in an accident. Counts as May’s death?
• Episode 4
• June 2 - Sakakibara is at the hospital for a check up. Calls Teshigawara; ignored. Eats with Mizuno. Glass almost falls on him and Ayano. Meets Misaki in the doll shop again.
• June 3 - Sakakibara returns to school. Mizuno dies. Counts as June’s death?
• Episode 5
• June 4 - Misaki returns to class. Akazawa elected as female class representative. Class 3-3 decides to ignore Sakakibara (starting June 5?). Takabayashi dies. Counts as June’s death?
• June 5 - Sakakibara receives the class roster from Mochizuki. Meets with Misaki and more of class 3-3’s circumstances are revealed.
• Episode 6
• June 5 - Sakakibara’s visit to Misaki’s home continues. .
• June 6 - Sakakibara’s next scheduled check up (episode 4).
• June 8 - Sakakibara’s fantasizes about doing lewd things to Misaki in class.
• Insert passage of time montage.
• June/July - Visit art club. Chat with Chibiki about the curse.
• July 13 - Teacher starts to goes batshit…
• Episode 7
• July 13 - …and kills himself. July’s death?
• July 17 - Mikami announces the class trip.
• July - Mei goes on vacation with her parents for a week.
• August 8-10 - Planned dates for the class trip.

The Curse - No changes

• Deaths start in April (I believe most Japanese schools start in April).
• At least one death per month following.
• Victims limited to class 3-3 students and their relatives. Must be within two generations and live in Yomiyama. Homeroom and assistant homeroom teachers can also die.
• Deaths occur when there is one more student than expected in class 3-3.
• The story of 26 years ago, particularly the part where class 3-3 pretends Yomiyama Misaki is still alive, started everything.
• Pretending Misaki was still alive brought the entire class closer to death.
• This in turn invites the dead to the class.
• The extra student is presumed to be someone connected to the class that died.
• The extra student is not the Misaki from 26 years ago.
• Superficial things like changing class name or location do not prevent the curse.
• Ignoring one student prevents the curse (how is the ignored chosen?).
• Dead student disappears after graduation. All memories of the dead student are lost (only class 3 students?).
• Deaths occur over summer break.

The Curse - Unknown Info

• Is there an extra student every year?
• Why did the curse stop partway in Reiko’s class?

Deaths - Coincidence or Not? - Since we are now assuming a supernatural force is at work, this section is useless and will be omitted from future posts.

1. Fujioka Misaki - Related to class 3-3 deaths? The only April death revealed so far, so probably safe to assume that her death is what initiated this years death. Not enough info given about her yet.
2. Sakuragi Yukari - Cause of death: Neck impaled by umbrella while falling down stairs. Chance of murder: Slim. Probably would not have died just from falling down the stairs, even if pushed or otherwise set up. Impossible to plan impalement by umbrella. If it was a murder, death was likely staged.
3. Sakuragi’s Mother - Cause of death: Automobile accident; run over? - Chance of murder: Moderate. At this point, there is no reason to believe it was anything but an accident, but of all the deaths so far this would be the easiest to execute.
4. Mizuno Sanae - Cause of death: Died from 8+ story fall due to being trapped in free-falling elevator. Chance of murder: Slim. The complexity of professionally rigging the elevator—to the level of eluding the skills of local police—while making sure she was inside when the failure occurs currently points to no murder. If working the night shift, she would be one of few employees present and probably the only one that would take a break on the roof, but even considering this, making sure the mechanism only fails when she is inside is much too technical, at this point.
5. Takabayashi Ikuo - Cause of death: Heart attack. Chance of murder: Almost none. Mostly likely a coincidence, more than any other death so far. Especially if you consider they revealed his health condition in episode 1. If it was a murder (through poison, tampered pacemaker, small bombs or whatever other means), one must consider the relevance of whether it was just a coincidence that he died in front of Sakakibara.
6. Kubodera - Cause of death: Suicide from knife wounds to throat. Chance of murder: None. However, his struggle with the knife did make it look like he was fighting himself or something else over whether to actually kill himself or not; like he was possessed. Which could be interpreted as if he was schizo, but since we are assuming the supernatural at this point there’s no point going down that road.